"There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open."
-- Woody Allen
Trip Totals:
Walmart Trips Made:7
McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:7
Horse Trailers Seen: 12
Itinerary Changes Made: 4
Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 4Today's Itinerary: NYC!!!
Top Conversation of the Day:
Lauren: Do you know where we are going next? (said while standing in line for Top of the Rock in reference to how to get to Grand Central)
John: If we just follow the line I'm sure it will lead us to the top
Lauren: 'face palm'
Lessons Learned:
1.) John doesn't like his plans deviated from. Proceed with caution!
2.) Lauren really wanted her Chinese Tea, and what Lauren wants she gets.
3.) Observation towers at night are not as cool as you would think.
4.) For some reason trains are in service with broken AC.
5.) Check the departure times of your commuter train.
6.) PATH and the subway are not the same thing.
7.) One World Observatory > The Top of the Rock
It started early and went long into the night. Over 24 hours awake to cram as much New York City experience into our road trip as we could.
The day started with a 3 hour drive to the Hudson Valley North Line. Taking the train into the city and Grand Central Terminal was a huge plus. Drive there was a bit long in the AM at 6, would be a bit more of a challenge 24 hours later. But more on that later.
We made our train with about 20 to spare or we would have had to wait an hour for the next train. The was some heated debate about which train to take, but we picked a good one as it ran right along the Hudson river. The great views started early with some amazing shots from the train.
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| West Point |
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| Bannermans' Castle |
New York City!
We made it! First thing we did was head to Battery Point to get a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Governer's Island. After we saw how crazy the ferries were it made us glad we had elected to forgo that this trip. Before we could leave Battery Park we had to visit Castle Clinton to get a stamp for our national parks passport. Of course we had to visit the Wall St bull too, and we had to have a couple NYC hotdogs as an early lunch.
We made it! First thing we did was head to Battery Point to get a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Governer's Island. After we saw how crazy the ferries were it made us glad we had elected to forgo that this trip. Before we could leave Battery Park we had to visit Castle Clinton to get a stamp for our national parks passport. Of course we had to visit the Wall St bull too, and we had to have a couple NYC hotdogs as an early lunch.
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| Statue of Liberty from Battery Park |
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| Ellis Island from Battery Park |
New York Midday
9/11 Memorial and One World Observatory (the highest point in the western hemisphere) were next on the list and they didn't disappoint. Following that we made trips to Central Park and Chinatown. Chinatown wasn't on the initial itinerary, but Lauren decided midday that she had to get tea from Chinatown and Chinatown in San Francisco just wouldn't do. The only problem is that she didn't insist on this until after we had already made our way back uptown. However, we had a couple hours to kill so back downtown we went.
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| View from One World Observatory |
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| View from One World Observatory |
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| View from One World Observatory |
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| View from One World Observatory |
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| View from One World Observatory |
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| Central Park - Belvedere Castle #shotwithiphone6 |
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| Central Park |
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| Central Park - Gapstow Bridge |
Night in NYC, energy is running low at this point just in time for us to head to Time Square for dinner and the M&M store, Radio City and The Rockettes and the finally at The Top of the Rock for a view of NYC at night. Oh, and the Rockettes were amazingly cool. A great mix of classic and pop music combined with, of course, fantastic dancing. After the show, Rockefeller Square shopping was closed for the night, but Time Square was even more alive than before.
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| Time Square |
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| Time Square |
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| Radio City Music Hall |
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| View from Rockefeller Center of Empire State Building |
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| View from Rockefeller Center |
Thanks for the memories NYC!
Since The Top of the Rock took longer than expected, we missed the 10:47pm train so we had to take the 11:47pm one which was the last of the night. This train stopped at every single station making it a full 1.5 hour train ride back to our car followed by a 3 hour drive home. We arrived home just in time to fall in bed at 5am, a full 24 hours after waking up. This gave us 4 hours of sleep before hitting the road for our next destination.
